What was the Holocaust?

The Holocaust was the systematic annihilation of six million Jews by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis during World War 2. In 1933 approximately nine million Jews lived in the 21 countries of Europe that would be military occupied by Germany during the war. By 1945 two out of every three European Jews had been killed by the Nazis. 1.5 million children were murdered. This figure includes more than 1.2 million Jewish children, tens of thousands of Gypsy children and thousands of handicapped children.

Why did Hitler want to rid the world of Jews?

Hitler blamed the Jews for the defeat in WWI and the consequent problems that followed.

Phase One: The Segregation Begins-- You Cannot Live Among

Us as Jews

How did the Nazi decide who was Jewish?

• It was decided that if one of person’s parents was Jewish, then they were Jewish.

• However, if only one of their grandparents had been Jewish then they could be classified as being German.

• In 1940, all Jews had to have their passports stamped with the letter ‘J’ and had to wear the yellow Star of David on their jacket or coat.

The Science Behind the Discrimination

Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass

The Killing Begins

Prelude to the Final Solution• In 1939, Germany

invaded Poland which had a much larger population of 3 million Jews.

• In 1941, Germany invaded Russia which had a population of 5 million Jews.

• Needed a more efficient method of killing Jews.

Wannsee Conference: Designing the Final Solution

How was the Final Solution going to

be organised?

Shooting was too inefficient as the bullets were needed for the war

effort

Jews were to be rounded up and put into transit camps called Ghettoes

The Jews living in these Ghettos were to

be used as a cheap source of labour.

Conditions in the Ghettos were designed to be so bad that many

die whilst the rest would be willing to leave these areas in the

hope of better conditions

On arrival the Jews would go through a

process called ‘selection.’

The remaining Jews were to be

shipped to ‘resettlement areas’ in the

East.

Women, children, the old & the sick were to

be sent for ‘special treatment.’

The young and fit would go through a process called

‘destruction through work.’

Phase Two: The Ghettos—You Cannot Live Among Us

A Life of Suffering: Children Dying of Starvation in the Warsaw Ghetto

Preparing for Transportation

Phase Three: Extermination Camps-- You Cannot Live

Entrance to Auschwitz

Notice how it has been built to resemble a railway station

Auschwitz Orchestra

Map of Auschwitz

New Arrivals

‘Destruction Through Work’

‘Showers’

Auschwitz from the airNotice how the Death camp is set out like a factory complex

The Nazis used industrial methods to murder the Jews and process their dead bodies

Tactics: What happened to new arrivals?

Deception & Selection

At Auschwitz the trains pulled into a mock up of a normal station.

The Jews were helped off the cattle trucks by Jews who

were specially selected to help the

Nazis

At some death camps the Nazis would play records of classical music to help calm

down the new arrivals.

At Auschwitz the new arrivals were calmed

down by a Jewish orchestra playing classical music.

All new arrivals went through a process

known as ‘selection.’

Mothers, children, the old & sick were sent

straight to the ‘showers’ which were

really the gas chambers.

The able bodied were sent to work camp

were they were killed through a process

known as ‘destruction through work.’

The Camps

Early Evidence of The Gas Chambers

The Gas Chamber: The Answer to the Jewish Question

The outside of the Gas Chamber

Notice the Ovens easy located near the Gas Chambers

The Innocent Victims

Hiding the Bodies

Crematorium

Processing the bodies

• Specially selected Jews known as the sonderkommando were used to to remove the gold fillings and hair of people who had been gassed.

• The Sonderkommando Jews were also forced to feed the dead bodies into the crematorium.

Dead bodies waiting to be processed

Shoes waiting to be processed by the sonderkommando

Taken inside a huge glass case in the Auschwitz Museum. This represents one day's collection at the peak of the gassings, about twenty five thousand pairs.

Destruction Through Work

This photo was taken by the Nazis to show just how you could quite literally work the fat of the Jews by feeding them 200 calories a day

Destruction Through Work

Same group of Jews 6 weeks later

Where were the Death Camps built?

Why do you think that they located them here?

House of Horrors: Scientific Experiments

Incendiary Bomb Experiments

The Youngest Victims

The Pathological Storeroom

Was the Final Solution successful?

• The Nazis aimed to kill 11 million Jews at the Wannsee Conference in 1941

• Today there are only 2000 Jews living in Poland.

• The Nazis managed to kill at least 6 million Jews.

• Men like Schindler helped Jews escape the Final Solution.

• Not all Jews went quietly into the gas cambers.

• In 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto, like many others revolted against the Nazis when the Jews realised what was really happening.

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do

nothing!